Bill Kostroun/Associated PressThe Nets' Devin Harris, passing the ball during the loss to the Warriors Wednesday, says the young team needs to 'fight through the fatigue and just focus on the mental game.'Any time you score 89 points against the league’s worst scoring defense, it’s time to reevaluate what you’re doing.

Any time you shoot 43 percent against the league’s worst field-goal defense, it’s time to reexamine how your offense is flowing.

And any time you get outrebounded by the league’s worst rebounding team, it’s time to rethink how much you really want this thing to turn around.

That’s what the Nets are faced with after Wednesday’s pratfall against the Golden State Warriors, but as they embark on a three-game trip starting Friday night at Indianapolis, their chief concern was finding an offensive chemistry that won’t blow up in the lab each time it is put to a test.

The 105-89 embarrassment, which was the kind of defeat they used to crucify head coaches for, was one of those games in which every guy looked as though he had dropped in earlier that day from another team.

And now it’s up to the three point guards to fix it.

“It’s frustrating, but we’re a young team,” Devin Harris said. “We made a few steps forward (in Chicago), and we took a couple steps back (against the Warriors). We’ll continue to progress and get better.

“But we have to fight through the fatigue and just focus on the mental game and take care of the ball and get good shots at the basket. Because that’s part of our defense: If we take good shots they don’t get as many uncontested layups as (Golden State) did.”

The key is actually getting a shot up. The Nets committed 22 turnovers, and afterward, they all pointed out that the Warriors were the No. 1 team in the league in forcing turnovers. That stat, of course, is dubious: The Warriors force 18 turnovers per game, but that’s only 3.6 more than the league average. They are a terrible defensive team, period.

The real problem is that the Nets still have entire quarters when they look like strangers, which they are: With Harris and Courtney Lee just rounding into shape, Keyon Dooling just returning from a seven-month rehab, and a new coach showing he is far more motion-oriented than the last coach, the Nets are still feeling each other out.

The question is, how long should this take, especially when your All-Star point guard is best suited for screen/roll and isolations?

“We don’t know,” Harris said. “We’re just going to fight through it. Obviously when we put some practices together, we’ll address it. But until then, we’ll go on the fly and see what works and go with it that night.”

“Yeah, we have to figure it out at both ends,” Dooling said. “But first of all, our effort has to be consistent – our motor has to be going. And we have to get our schemes down. We have to figure out what kind of team we are — our rotations, how we play pick-and-rolls, a lot of things. It won’t happen overnight. I can’t say how long it will take. We still have guys who are out.”

“It’s an up and down situation,” Rafer Alston said. “When we win a game, it seems everyone’s adjusted; but when we lose a game, everybody acts like it’s a brand new style of play. You have to stay the course. And when things aren’t going your way, stay with it.”

The one thing the Nets have going for them is undeniable – but young – scoring talent. Lee, Brook Lopez, and Chris Douglas-Roberts can all carry the load at different times, and Harris is the most talented scorer of the four.

Now he just has to find a way to meld it.

“It’s on who’s hot that night, and between CDR and Courtney and myself, we’ll try to find that second or third scorer,” Harris said. “Sometimes it’s tough. But we’ll figure it out.

“We’re trying to throw things into shootarounds and short practices. We have a stretch coming up where we have time, and we’ll address a lot of different things and go from there.”

NOTES

The Pacers are without their star, Danny Granger, who will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a torn plantar fascia in his right foot.

Lopez had his usual 21-and-10 against Golden State, which gives him 10 double-doubles for the season. That’s the second-highest total in the league. Chris Bosh leads with 19.

Lopez is sixth in the early tallies for Eastern Conference All-Star center. Dwight Howard will win the vote in a walk, with Shaquille O’Neal second, but Lopez has a chance to surpass Andrea Bargnani, Al Horford, and Andrew Bogut.Dave D'Alessandro may be reached at ddalessandro@starledger.com